looks at life for women of a certain age. Observations and wry stories that might ring bells with some.

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Cranking Back the Clock

With B at her school

Apologies for my long absence - we have been on baby-sitting duty for the last week at my daughter's house while she and her husband are swanning about on Greek islands. I would not normally have condoned such an absence from their small children (boy aged 7 and girl 4), but her husband spends much time away from home, working hard for 4 days a week and they really deserved this time together. They are away for two weeks. I do think my daughter suffered quite a guilt trip before they left. The children are both at school and we have been left with a detailed schedule of their daily comings and goings/play dates etc. This was both printed out and there is a copy pinned to the wall: we also receive an automated reminder in the form of a Whatsapp message every morning and there are various notes pinned to the oven/cupboards/TV equipment/remote controls/menus etc as to how things work. I did take us nearly four days to work out how the lights work but no matter. They have a maid who comes in every day: she also has a detailed list regarding packed lunches/school uniform/sports equipment and she does the washing and cleaning. A piece of cake I hear you say? Have you forgotten just how incessantly active tinies are? And no, they are not ADHD. When C does his homework with me he concentrates extremely well: ditto at night when he expects to be read at least 10 Chapters of a Captain Underpants story. (Jolly good they are too!) I-pads are forbidden except in the car during the hectic morning traffic on the way to school. This is a bit of a relief to tell you the truth, from B's non-stop chatter. It's quite challenging dredging up long-forgotten parenting skills cf the following: B suddenly announces in the car in the middle of a game, "This is not my I-pad, it's Fred's".Granny to B: "Where is your I-pad? Does Fred have it?" B to Granny: "Don't know"Granny to C: "Who is Fred's mommy?"G to Granny: "Auntie Cassandra". (Fortunately, light dawns for Granny. I remember seeing that name and phone number on the Emergency Contacts List.)A more difficult problem has been B forcibly entering our bed at night, any time from about 11.00pm. She is a fidgety sleeper so the king-size bed has proved too small for 3 of us resulting in granny spending one night on the couch. This had a side benefit however, as I was awoken one morning by C creeping in at 4.30 am. to watch cartoons on TV. I solved the other problem though: I was inspired to discover that a favourite teddy suffered from night frights and a sore tummy in the middle of the night. I stressed that he needed to sleep right next to B with her arm around him so she could comfort him whenever he woke up. Worked like a dream. There is a huge calendar on the wall with each of the 14 sleeps carefully marked as a countdown. It's the first thing C does every morning when he opens his eyes - crosses one off. Only six sleeps to go......wish us luck! So far so good. (Sextant, please read my reply to you re previous post.)

It's great to find a children's writer with such imagination, just out to have fun, stimulate, and not push boring moral or politically correct points. Of course, I take my hat off to the marvellous illustrator as well.

I just checked Amazon and they have Captain Underpants available in the US. With such titles as Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets, or Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot (Captain Underpants #12) who could resist. But wait I think I found one for me:

Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space. I like tales of naughty ladies. Wait these ones have tentacles, hmmm.

I missed that last sentence about 6 more sleeps. Have a good tomorrow!